Hi everyone,
I'm now in my new house, surrounded by stuff I never realized I had and feeling all out of sorts. What's more homey than cooking and making the house smell awesome? So this weekend I'm planning a cooking bonanza to fill my freezer with tasty bento things. My list so far is only those spicy lentil snacks which isn't much of a bonanza :(

What do you have in your stash? What things would be in your stash if you managed to keep enough aside to freeze?

I usually have a couple different variety of grains (mostly variations on 1 cup serving brown rice recipes and bread), instant soup balls, mini burgers (vegetarian ones for me and meat ones for my husband), soy loafs, tofu, frozen vegetables, and fruit (bagged and fresh). And this weekend I will give freezing casseroles in bento sized portions a go.

And how nice to start fresh, good luck on filling your freezer with goodies!

Ice cubes of the soupy part of laksa, ice cubes of hummus, a big bag of baked falafels, slices of chicken & carrot roll, slices of meatloaf, portions of kebbe, frozen blanched asparagus (which I should use!), Thai beef, some Malasian beef (can you tell I'm not a vegetarian?). That's what I can think of that I've made, and is suitable for bentos.

Update: I just remembered the salted salmon and salmon tartare I made the other night!

Then there's a bag of frozen prawns and one of crab sticks, and bits of a smoked chicken that was on special, which are suitable for bentos but just bought.

And for winter dinners and not proper bento lunches there are 250 ml containers of various stews and curries, and 400 ml containers of soups and curries which contain their own starch (like potatoes and kumara).

I'm pretty sure there's some stuff I missed (like fishballs I just remembered I also had, and squid). There would be more, but freezer cooking last weekend burned me out! I need to get a real good bento box, though, because I'm running out of steam...

Bento-wise, all I have is some portioned out sushi rice. One of my favorite staples, though, is pizza sauce. I make it in a big batch, enough for 10 pizzas. Then I portion it out into freezer-safe bags, usually enough sauce for 2 pizzas per bag.

Typically I try to have a couple more protein sources, like soy loaf and black bean mini-burgers, and some other kind of vegetable. I'm restocking after depleting my stash, made the onigiri last night.

My freezer stash needs replenishing - I have a few "raw ingredients" but not too much that I can just grab and defrost to pop in a bento box. I'm hoping to do a bunch of cooking this weekend - I'm gearing up to start adding on to my bento customers at work (as of now I have made 5 bento lunches for one coworker, and have at least a half dozen interested others!).

However, I am proud of the fact that I was able to go through and clear out and organize our freezer and fridge a couple weekends ago. It's been really helpful knowing where everything is, and I even have a little bento section designated for bento ingredients in both the fridge and the freezer.

Here's what I Would have in my freezer (and did have the top three, until recently...but hm, somehow they just disappear...)
-homemade samosas - so much work but So worth it! These got used up sometime in January
-homemade korokke (with beef soboro and without) - We served the last of them to our guests a couple weekends ago
-jiaozi dumplings - store-bought wrappers with my filling (pork and shrimp)
-various ground meats or other meat cuts, depending on what's on sale: ground beef, ground pork, country-style pork ribs for making char siu, etc.
-more portions of soup, in smaller amounts
-breadcrumbs
-mentaiko

I don't have too much. Our freezer is full enough as it is. But I usually have some gyoza, wantans and self-made spring rolls, cause there's not much point in just doing a few. I also have some meatloafs in there right now. And I like to freeze leftover burgers (frikadellen).

Seasoned sweet potatoe vines, Filipino tamarind soup, miso-clam-spinach soup, kimchee dumplings (my aunt makes...I'm clueless as to how), marinated bulgogi, and seasoned nori sheets. All in individual-sized containers. Freezing is sort of a "must-do" when you're living alone. It's hard and not very economical to cook just enough for one serving size, and I hate eating the same thing over and over again. So I really do try and freeze everything that's possible, which usually ends up being soups and a few meat dishes.

Unfortunatley, my dad throws out anything I put in there because I'm "not using it" (as in, it's been there for a day) and he claims to need the room. I have got some miso soup balls (miso mixed with instant dashi stock) tucked in the door he might not notice though.

Candied orange peels, although they don't need to be frozen. They're definitely good for cheering up and making the house smell happy.
Burgers, hummus, onigiri to pull out whenever you need some, bread (you can find a lot of gluten-free bread recipes online, and there are all sorts of flours for the gluten-intolerant at health food stores), veggies....

I'm still in college, and I don't have a real freezer, but if I did, it would be filled with stuff like that.

Individual servings of rice. Individual servings of bibimbap. (This does work! I microwave it most of the way, add an egg, and microwave some more.) Individually wrapped lime chicken burritos. Just one each of some homemade basil tomato chicken soup and homemade corn chowder without the dairy (yet). Cilantro ice cubes, coffee ice cubes, corn, store-bought dumplings and kimchi mandu. Cut up chicken and beef waiting to be cooked. Soon, some cooked meat to go with the rice so I don't have to do dishes during busy season. Sausage links to go in my breakfast roll ups. Nori sheets. Chinese seaweed cake for shrimp soup. Shrimp. Ddeok guk ddeok. : )

I like to have fish cakes or crab cakes in the freezer. I also have a bag of frozen grilled veggies that are easy to reheat and slice up nice. My other favourite is to buy bags of those small, bite-sized candy bars and freeze those and put them into the lunchbox at the end so they thaw by lunchtime and help keep things cool and - well it's a candy bar! This works well for yogurts in a tube too, if you get them. Most of the time, though I make bento from leftover dinner the night before so I don't tend to keep much in the freezer. It's a tiny freezer, after all.

Is there much for bento in Melbourne? I ask as I'll be emigrating there later this year, and we're all kinds of excited about it.

Melbourne is great! I love Melbourne. Though it doesn't seem to be EXTREMELY bento :( The only box I've found is the sought after lock'n'lock set, and lock'n'lock is readily available, but i've found nothing cute and awesome. It is the land of 1001 asian groceries though!

If I may rephrase the question a little differently to ask what we would have in the freezer IF we had enough room (we have a typical Parisian sized fridge i.e. bar size) it would be:

- shrimp/langoustine
- various veggies
- various berries (nothing like rediscovering the wild berries you picked in summer)
- dashi
- home made waffles/gaufrettes (savoury ones work well in bento)
- home made pre-formed pizza dough
- home made pre-formed pastry crusts
- stock
- pre-sliced bread in case (heaven forbid) we run out of fresh bread
- 2 ice trays instead of one

It's nice to know what everyone else has. Thanks to Maki, for bento freezer stash I have (and what I add on the side to complete it):
- Mini burgers (w/ rice, corn, and spinach)
- chicken (leg meat) soboro (w/ brown rice and cooked broccoli)
Other items I have:
- potstickers (w/ rice, sunny-side-up egg, cooked broccoli)
- salted salmon (w/ brown rice and cooked broccoli). I buy this from a Japanese market in a pack of 10; it's not frozen. Then, I wrap them individually before freezing.
- yaki-onigiri (usually this is a snack rather than a bento item)
Freshly cooked rice is a real treat for me, so I don't freeze any. And lucky for me, there's a Korean supermarket across the street so I stop by a few times a week for fresh veggies and fruits. I don't have frozen veggies except edamame. My freezer stash is small, but enough to give good variety in meats and fish. I only resort to it when I'm too busy or lazy. Otherwise, I'd get sick of them too.
Anyway, I'm so thankful for JustHungry because without the site, I would not have any bento freezer stash and would be eating out everyday like I used to.

Mine's got mostly meatball type things (salmon patties, etc) and little portions of leftovers that I couldn't finish. I plan to put stuff like veggie burgers and little Lumpia (filipino egg rolls), as well as fish balls and tsukune. I've also got a ton of fish and chicken too.

Right now I have onigiri, pork meat balls, shumai, and potstickers. I also have some steam buns, but I am not convinced those are going to work in a bento.

Trust me though, my stash isn't usually this good. We can thank a recent trip to the Asian Supermarket for most of my goodies. I do need to find some time this weekend to replenish and make some new things.

Hmm... I have various fruits and berries, both fresh and canned, portioned out, some carrots, green beans, mini pancakes, and I might have some hashbrowns left. I plan to add in some more rice, some more veggies, and maybe some sweet things. Also should probably freeze those bagels... Any idea if cream cheese will freeze?

Protein Staples
-Morningstar Chikn Nuggets (these go best with macaroni and cheese :)
-Morningstar Veggie burgers
-turkey burgers (I don't make these often, they are for when my boyfriend visits)
-Chicken breast fillet, individually wrapped
-tuna-tofu mini burgers, though i am all out and I want to get miso paste for the next time i make them (I made them without the first time - they were edible, but needed sauce)
- I recently bought some Morningstar "Crumbles" ground-beef substitute. I haven't tried it yet...

Cooked Food
- Rice portions - I usually made 1/2 cup portions
- Onigiri, usually tuna though I want to try making some with the Crumble-meat

I noticed you had hard-boiled eggs in the freezer--do you freeze them whole, or do you cut them or crumble them? And does it change the texture a lot? Just curious; I was always told not to freeze hard-boiled eggs, and if there's a way to do it, I wanna know! My kids eat half a dozen a week, at least.

Well I often freeze onigiri and a convenient lunch filler. If I'm making myself rice for breakfast, I just put 4 cups instead of one into my rice maker, and in the morning I quickly make the onigiri before breakfast. I also have frozen shelled edamame. I like them better shelled because they are more compact that way, and I don't like my fingers getting all sticky when they are in the pods. I also keep frozen cooked rice and frozen Ezekiel bread (it goes bad easily). I don't usually freeze most of my other meals, so I can't be of much help there...Oh I do freeze portioned cups of dashi.

I have brown rice onigiri, single portions of legumes (chick-peas, black beans, white beans), some quiches, chicken (some shredded, some whole pieces), cheese (sliced, cubed, and grated), frozen fruit, and tofu. I usually have a stockpile of tuna and peanut-butter sandwiches cut into cute shapes for the kids so we can avoid the Happy-Meal trap. I've used those up, however, and it's time to stock up again.

A lot of stuff I made, didn't like, and don't know what to do with >.>

For example, something went horribly wrong with the bunny bao I made - the filling was absolutely delicious when I tasted it but the finished bun just put me off >.> maybe I needed a higher filling to bun ratio or something. I've got a half dozen of them in my freezer waiting for some kind of use.

"Stop having the boring tuna; stop having the boring life" - Vince Offer